Pioneering Effective Tech Career Development
In the landscape of software development learning, there are conventional paths, and then there’s Ascend. We’ve carved out a unique niche for developers seeking to transform into tech innovators and leaders, without conforming to the traditional boundaries of tech education.
What Makes Ascend Stand Apart
- Real-World Application: Step beyond the typical training experience into a realm of hands-on, practical learning. Ascend is about embracing the challenges and unpredictability you’ll face in real tech roles.
- Dynamic Skill Evolution: In Ascend, your growth is driven by actual project work, not a static curriculum. This approach is designed to adapt and evolve, mirroring the fluidity of the tech industry.
- Developer to Innovator Transformation: We’re not just about enhancing coding skills. Ascend is about shaping you into a forward-thinking innovator, ready to solve complex problems and lead with confidence in any tech environment.
Here, learning is not confined to videos, or textbooks, or lectures. It’s about getting your hands dirty in the soil of real-world tech problems. It’s about those lightbulb moments when a complex problem suddenly makes sense, about the camaraderie of solving tough challenges with your peers, and about the satisfaction of seeing your ideas come to life.
When you enter the program, you will join a carefully selected team of 3 or 4 curious and motivated peers, alongside an experienced veteran as a mentor, to work on system challenges to expand your capabilities with every session. Our immersive, hands-on program has your team taking ownership of an existing system that must be grown and scaled to meet an ambitious technical vision.
Program Objectives
Skill Enhancement
For technologist who want to build a strong foundation of knowledge and competencies, the Ascend program guides them through a three stage program that deepens and broadens their skills to be able to think in systems and deliver business value.
- Understanding how operating systems work and how to configure them.
- Understanding and implementation of common design patterns.
- Competency in event-based architectures.
- Understanding the constituent parts of modern CI/CD pipelines.
- Making valuable technical decisions and communicating them effectively to non-technical teammates.
- Cloud services: From basic to advanced
Networking and Collaboration
An integral part of this program is that each learner will be collaborating with teammates who are also curious, engaged, and positive. This will build a strong network of trusted peers that can be trusted to grow with you during your career. The shared successes and challenges as learners interact with different people on their journeys will forge strong relationships that endure.
Leadership Development
This program has an additional, powerful effect. It will develop the leadership capabilities of each learner by helping them devise strategies for conflict resolution, defining vision, mentoring, and thinking strategically. This will enable them to take on increasingly complex and strategic roles within the organization - from senior engineer, to staff engineer, and principal engineer.
If that is the path you want to take, you must have solid technical leadership skills so that you can partner with personnel managers to keep teams producing and growing consistently.
Structure and Commitment
Ascend cohorts will be comprised of either 3 or 4 technologists and your cohort’s mentor. This is a very limited and intimate engagement that requires a total commitment from each member of the team. Each cohort will decide on the days and times of the sessions, and their frequency. People have families, travel plans, hobbies, and other interests that will dictate these factors.
One cohort may be meeting two nights per week for 1-hour sessions. Another cohort may want to meet for 3 hours every Saturday. Your cohort will operate as a partnership and a peer support group, so ensuring that each member is in agreement about timing and cadence ensures accountability.
Each cohort is designed to complete one tier of the program. Once a tier is complete, it is up to the cohort to continue together if everyone wants to take on the next tier, or to disband.
Tier 1
In the first tier fo Ascend, you will be building the foundational competencies and understanding of automation, the Linux operating system, caching strategies, virtual machines, and some basic cloud services. The concepts are the bedrock of modern tools and processes, and give your cohort the ability to start meeting the technical vision.
Tier 2
The second tier of Ascend continues to both broaden and deepen your competencies. You will learn how all of the pieces of a mature CI/CD process. You will deepen your understanding of software fundamentals like inheritance, common software patterns, and data structures. You will explore the fundamentals of automating the creation of infrastructure. You will also grow your ability to provide high value to any organization by making smart, reliable technology decisions that are maintainable, cost-effective, and observable.
Tier 3
In the final tier of Ascend, your cohort will begin the journey of learning the thought processes, behaviors, technical prowess and business alignment that the highest value, most senior technologist bring to an organization. You will explore sophisticated telemetry solutions for high observability, modern cloud architecture tools, and implement a frictionless CI/CD solution. You will build the core skills of evaluating work that needs to be done, evaluate the tools needed, and be able to defend those decisions when working with the business side of the organization.
Pricing and Length
Each tier’s cost is $3000, with 25% due on acceptance (which is $750) and then 6 monthly payments of $375.00.
Each tier will last approximately 6-8 months depending on the frequency of the cohort’s sessions. If you are looking for a quick tutorial, look elsewhere. This program is based on science and these complex competencies take time, reflection, and practice to build.
Are ready to to learn more details and talk about your goals?